Avoiding Costly Vehicle Transport Mistakes
The #1 mistake people make when looking for a vehicle transport company is to shop solely on lowest price. Pinching pennies when shipping your car is not the smartest idea. Selecting a transporter based on a good reputation is. Here’s why:
The vehicle transport industry lacks regulation, which leaves room for unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of unsuspecting clients. Reputable quotes should be within a few dollars of one another. If one quote is significantly less, it should be a HUGE red flag.
The reality is, supply and demand and other market factors dictate prices, especially diesel prices. All transport brokers pull from the same pool of about 20,000 carriers and pay around the same amount to ship your car from point A to point B on any given route.
An artificially low quote can mean inexperience or unscrupulousness. Both can lead to your vehicle not getting picked up timely, causing you to pay expedited prices at the last minute. If an unscrupulous broker intentionally low-balls a price to bait you, a few likely consequences are:
- The deposit taken up front and the pay-on-delivery amount end up being more than what you were quoted and, if you do not pay, you do not get your car
- The broker charges your credit card and a truck never comes. If lucky, you may eventually get your money back. In the interim, your car doesn’t ship and you must pay expedited rates
- A carrier picks up your car then makes up some story about how it is going to cost you a lot more. Basically, they HOLD YOUR CAR HOSTAGE until you pay more
When you read the fine print in the contract you signed, you may realize what a mistake it was to go with the cheapest price. The best way to shop for vehicle transport is to shop for reputation first, then look for a fair price to pay. Look past the “cheap” price and look at the bigger picture of what could happen if you choose a company with a less than stellar reputation or intentions.
To find out if a transport company is on the up-and-up, check out their website and consumer reviews. Look them up on LinkedIn. Savvy consumers also check the Better Business Bureau. Team Alex’s parent company, Ship Your Car Now, LLC is one of the very few vehicle transport companies to have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Do your homework and you will be happy you did.